The sisters issued separate statements that were posted simultaneously to Heart's Facebook page. Ann wrote, "It's important now to keep thoughts of Chris positive. He is on his way. We loved him well, now wish him well on his journey. He was and is a beautiful soul."

"No one is ever prepared to hear about a death in the family," Nancy added. "And today Chris Cornell my brother from my Seattle music family is gone. I thought his voice would forever grace the world of music. Devastating."

In 2013, Cornell inducted Heart into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That night, he told a story about how, during his lean years, seeing one of the Wilson sisters leaving a recording studio convinced him to not give up on his rock and roll dreams.

Prior to the ceremony, the three of them were interviewed backstage and Cornell spoke of how Heart stood out from the pack of rock bands when they first arrived, and it helped that they hailed from the same city. "With Seattle being so provincial and isolated," he said in the video above, "and they're from here? How is that even possible? Nobody cares about us. And that was important to me -- especially after I became a musician -- that, okay, there's one example. There's one or two -- Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix -- we're not always gonna be ignored."